


cryptic love letters

by ohmayo



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, PINING KEITH, eventual mutual pining, it's gonna be fluffly all the waaay, shiro tries to be best bro™
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 15:38:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12015807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmayo/pseuds/ohmayo
Summary: Lance and Keith are paired up as partners for an assignment, which means they have to work this out much to Lance's dismay. Over the course of two weeks, Lance couldn't help but notice Keith acting a littlestrange...





	cryptic love letters

“Ugh, I can’t believe that Mr. Shirogane paired me up with Keith of all people.”

Lance figured that the best way to de-stress was with food. During this time, the cafeteria was bustling with students considering that it was lunchtime. The loud chatters of all kinds of students filled the room coupled with the clinking of trays. It wasn’t the ideal place to vent but hey, at least he could use food to eat all of his stress away. Lance grabbed an apple and began to take a bite of it, slightly wincing at the sourness. Hunk, on other hand, got a burrito to satisfy his appetite. It wasn’t too long that the duo found an empty seat at the corner of the room. 

“Hey, Keith’s actually good at Literature. Maybe Mr. Shirogane paired you up with him for a good reason considering your grades in his class.” Hunk sat down at the table then proceeded to carefully unwrap his meal. 

Now that he thought about it, Hunk wasn’t wrong. Lance was excellent at almost all his subjects—just not Literature. Analyzing and interpreting works made by old dead people just didn’t interest him enough to care. Still, having Keith in his team would—as much as he hated to admit it—be beneficial to him but that would mean _working together_ with him. There was no possible way that he could do that. Nope. Never. He couldn’t bring himself to work as a team with his rival. 

“Why does it have to be Keith? Why couldn’t it be Plaxum or, hell, even Rolo?” Lance complained as he finished what’s left of his apple. 

Hunk chuckled as he said, “Dude, you wouldn’t even last two minutes being paired up with Rolo and, let’s be honest, Plaxum’s just too good to be true.”

“Ugh, I hate it when you’re right.” Lance sighed defeatedly. “Where’s Pidge, anyway?”

“She’s probably hanging out in the library again.” Hunk was still radiating with Lance’s praise as took a big bite of his burrito.

“Anyway,” Hunk mumbled as he swallowed. “What assignment did Mr. Shirogane give to the both of you this time?”

Lance brought his hands to his face as he painstakingly mumbled out, “Shakespeare. Sonnet 18.”

“Ahh,” Hunk took another bite, closing his eyes as he savored the taste. “ _Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?_ Classic.”

“Hunk, as much as I love you, this isn’t really the right time to admire my potential cause of death.” Lance slowly brought his hands down. This is _no bueno_ for Lance. “Quiznak, how am I gonna do this with Keith?”

“I dunno, man. Why not try asking him right now?” Hunk pointed his thumb at the cafeteria entrance’s direction.

Lo and behold there was Keith—mullet and all. Standing under the entryway was his rival and the bane of Lance’s existence. As he stood, Keith’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the whole cafeteria, clearly searching for someone. After a short while, his searched stopped as he locked eyes with Lance and was now making his way in the crowded cafeteria towards him with an unreadable look on his face. 

“Oh man, speak of the devil.” Lance muttered under his breath as Keith’s figure grew closer. “What did I do to deserve this?”

Glancing at Keith, Hunk quickly garbled the last of his burrito and patted his handkerchief on his mouth, brushing away all the crumbs that was left by his meal. “Welp, buddy.” Hunk slowly rises from his seat. “You’re gonna have to deal this one alone first.”

“H-Hey, Hunk! C’mon, man.” Lance begged at Hunk’s already retreating figure. His pleas had done no effect to his friend. “Not cool, Hunk! Not. Cool.”

The universe hated him. Lance took a deep breath as he quietly gathered up his thoughts. Lance could try asking Mr. Shirogane to switch partners but he knows that there’s a 0.1% of that actually working, he could try making up excuses in every meeting with Keith but that would be too troublesome to do and Keith would probably hunt him down, or he could try faking his own death but, oh, that wouldn’t be practical and result in a horrible backfire. He’s ticked all the escape routes in his head. There’s no other way. Lance is going to have to survive this whole ordeal with Keith. I, mean, he’s dealt with worse, right? No mullet-man is going be his demise. Nuh-uh. It’s just gonna be him, his rival, and his most boring subject for two long weeks. _‘You can do this.’_ He quietly chanted to himself, eager to lift his own spirits up. _‘You can do this, Lan—'_

“Lance.” A soft, low voice interrupted his train of thought. Looks like Keith finally got close enough to Lance. “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

Lance whipped his head at Keith, eyes agape. “Uhh…” Lance intelligently said as he thought up the words to say. “…Sure. What’s up?”

It’s now or never.

Lance gestured to the seat next to him, prompting Keith to sit down. “It’s about our assignment. I didn’t get a chance to discuss it with you awhile back ‘cuz you left in a hurry.”

Now that he mentioned it, Lance recalled himself swiftly packing up his things that were clattered on his seat as soon as the bell rang. Lance exasperatingly huffed as he left Mr. Shirogane’s classroom, not even sparing a look back at Keith. 

“So… Umm…” Keith awkwardly brought his hand at the back of his head and ruffled his hair.” Where and when do you wanna do this, Lance?”

Huh, that was weird. Usually, Keith would straight up demand the time and place—Lance didn’t expect him to have him sit down and politely ask.

“Uhh… we could do it this afternoon—after class, I mean. At the library,” Lance replied, trying to search Keith’s expression for any signs of why he’s suddenly not Keith-like. 

Keith’s eyes grew wide as his expression turned down. “Oh, I’m actually kinda busy this afternoon.” Keith lifted his head to give Lance what seems to be an apologetic smile. “…Maybe we could do it tomorrow?”

Okay, something fishy is going on. What happened to the hot-headed Keith that he came to know? 

“Uhh… sure.” Lance awkwardly smiled back at Keith. “I don’t have practice tomorrow so it’s fine, I guess.”

“Oh, good.” Keith slowly lifted himself of his seat. “I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

Lance stared at Keith with awe as he said, “Y-yeah. See ya, man.”

Keith made a little wave before leaving the area leaving Lance to question his state of mind. Lance gave himself a whole minute to fully sink in of what happened. He reached his hand towards his back pocket and whipped out his phone. He needed to talk to Hunk. Stat. 

**Lance 12: 46**  
dude I think keith hit his head or smth

 **Hunk 12:50**  
Explain???

 **Lance 12:51**  
ok so after you left he kinda started talking politely. And he smiled. HE S M I L E D

 **Hunk 12:51**  
Ummm… Isn’t he always polite?

 **Lance 12:53**  
no?? wait are we even talking about the same person rn?? this is keith were talking about he is n e v e r polite

 **Hunk 12:56**  
That’s because you always piss him off, man…

 **Lance 12:56**  
nope. theres always smth. he must be possessed. or an alien. HE MUST BE A CLONE HUNK. 

**Hunk 12:57**  
Lol Lance. You’re thinking way too deep in this  
Anyway, I should get to class. See ya, buddy! :D

 **Lance 1:00**  
i have to get to the bottom of this  
ok :( ttyl 

Lance stuffed his phone back in his pocket and he let out a low groan. _‘This is gonna be a long week,’_ he thought to himself.

* * *

“Shiro, how could you do this to me?!” 

“Hmm? Do what, Keith?” Shiro feigned innocently, continuing to look down as he graded the growing pile of papers on his desk. The constant scratching of the pen on paper made Keith more impatient than ever. Of all the places, he could spend his afternoon, he just had to be asked to help grade papers with the person that started this whole conundrum. 

“Oh, you know full well at what you did, you _shit_ ,” Keith gruffly barked, gritting his teeth at Shiro. 

Just by glancing at those meticulously placed stacks, he could tell that Shiro liked to keep his things organized—then again, he should know better of his brother. Keith impishly grinned at thought that it only took a little ‘accident’ before those stacks could come tumbling down. 

“Now, now, don’t you even dare, Keith.” Shiro gave one final flick of his wrist before putting down his pen on the desk and eyeing at Keith with a warning eye. “Lance’s grades in my class are not that great—with you being one of my top students, I thought that it would be the right choice to pair you up with him.” Keith crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow at Shiro, expecting more to come out of his explanation. “…and I just wanted to help my dear brother’s relationship with the boy that he’s been pining for two years. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”

Keith took a deep breath to ease his anger before he shyly said, “I-I do want it.” Keith could almost feel the corners of Shiro’s lips rise. “But that doesn’t mean that you could just butt in and pair me up with Lance! And besides… he only thinks of me as his _rival_.” 

Keith was rambling now. “I-I don’t even know how to get my feelings to him. Hell, I barely lasted a normal conversation with him a while ago—the only time I can act normal in front of him is when we argue over stupid shit. I just—” Keith exhaled, pouring all of his emotions. “I just don’t want our relationship to revolve around stupid arguments. I don’t want him to hate me. I just want to be his friend and maybe more…”

Keith still remembered the first time he’s heard about Lance. Two years ago, he’s heard about this boy that recently transferred to his school. He remembered hearing about this charming boy—albeit a huge flirt—that happened to rub off his energetic personality to everyone. In a matter of months, Lance landed a spot in the soccer varsity and had his own circle of friends—a big guy named Hunk and now, a girl who is two years below their grade who goes by the name Pidge. The day that brought them together was fate—as Keith might put it. On that crisp, fall day, Keith was drawn to the cute, sun-kissed boy that kicked a ball on his face while he read his book about hippos. Before, Lance was genuinely nice to him but that was before he knew that Keith was top of his class—now, he treats Keith as his rival and his only purpose was to piss him off. Nevertheless, even today, Keith would find himself tossing and turning on his bed because of Lance’s little smiles. 

Shiro sighed as he stood from his seat and placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder. “Keith,” he started. “You could start by giving him little hints. Try giving more smiles, don’t be afraid to reach out to him, and be yourself. There’s a reason of why I chose Sonnet 18 as your assignment and you know, a lot of things can happen in two weeks. Try to be patient with him and see if he’s truly the right one for you. Remember what I always say to you: Patience yields focu—”

Keith exasperatingly threw his arms up in the air to interrupt Shiro. “Yeah, yeah, patience yields focus. Blah, blah. You’ve told me that a hundred times, _brother.”_

“I’m glad that it stuck to you.” Shiro flashed Keith a genuine smile. “Now, come and help me with this—there’s a reason of why I asked to you spend your afternoon here.”

**Author's Note:**

> i guess watching teen romance movies can give you the motivation to write. h a ha


End file.
